Arizona Cousins

I had a surprise phone call on Monday evening from a cousin in Arizona who I have not talked to in 40 years or more. When I was growing up, one of my Mother’s brothers lived in Arizona. We had three cousins there, Ronnie, Tiffany and Daphne. We didn’t see them but maybe once every 4 or 5 years, and saw their Dad on trips in to PA in between those years. Very much like the cousins in PA would say about how often they have seen my children. I go home to PA from Minnesota alone, more often than with my children.

There was always a lot of excitement on the part of us Pennsylvania cousins, when the cousins from Arizona arrived in town! Ronnie was much older than I was. My memories are more of wit was just my Aunt and Uncle and two girls that came, after Ronnie was grown. On my Mom’s side us cousins were girls with the exception of Ronnie and my brothers. Us girls would get together at Grandma’s house and see “Tif” and “Daf” while they were at Grandma’s. Grandma would be brave and let us stay overnight for a few nights, there were 5 of us girls (wasn't that brave!) We do have 2 more girl cousins, but they were too young at the time to hang with us. We always had so much fun. The girls lived in the city in Arizona, so coming to Grandma’s farm was always exciting for them. They always wanted to play in the barn and in the hay mow (loft). We would play “house”, set up our house with our dolls in the hay loft and play, play, play! Those were the days when paper dolls were popular and we would play paper dolls too in the house.

One thing that all of us remembered into adulthood was the time that we broke Grandma’s bed. She had a spare bedroom where we stayed, it had two beds. We used to play in there too. You know how kids jump on beds, when they aren’t supposed to. She often caught us “jumping” and would tell us not to jump. Well, you guessed it, one time we were jumping and the bed broke. We were afraid to tell Grandma. Eventually we had to, and though Grandma wasn’t happy with us, she was not the type to punish us severely; she was a darling Grandma and under-stood “kids”, thankfully. But we did get “hollered” (as we say in PA) at! And, we never forgot the day we broke her bed!

Another time Grandma took us to an amusement park for the day. There was a show there called “The Pinky Lee” Show. Now, I don’t know if you remember Pinky Lee or not, but at the time, he was a TV star to us, a show we watched on TV. Gee, that was fun. I even did something out of my comfort zone, that when I think back, I can’t believe that I did. He invited kids to come to the stage to sing and dance with him during one number. I know, if you know me now, you’d never believe it, but I was a very, very shy girl. One of the girls (don’t remember which one) encouraged me to go to the stage with her. We sang and danced with Pinky Lee. What a time that was!

Daphne is the cousin that called me Monday. The last time I saw her in PA, she was about 16 years old. She was the same age as one of my brothers. During that visit, our 4-H club was hosting a group of 4-H’ers from Tennessee, and she went with me to a picnic that we had for them. Both being teens then, we talked about boys. That is really all the memory I have of that last visit with her and her sister. Daphne, if you are reading this (I told her about my blog), feel free to post a comment or two of your memories.

It was always one of my dreams to visit my Aunt, Uncle and cousins in Arizona. One of the things we talked about on our phone visit was how hard it is to not have our parents anymore. Her Mother and Dad were a very special Aunt and Uncle to me, and I miss them, even though I didn’t see them very often. Only one of her Dad and my Mother’s siblings are left, and she and I also talked about making a real effort to stay in touch with Uncle Gilbert and Aunt Mae as much as we can.

The cousins from Arizona were very special, and Daphne and I decided to stay in touch more closely. About 2 years ago I talked with another cousin who had talked with Daphne’s sister, and they had an idea that we girl cousins should all meet somewhere for a get together retreat. I thought it was a great idea; we need to make that happen, and not put it off before more years pass. In the meantime, perhaps Bob and I can plan a visit to see the Arizona cousins in 2007. He also has a cousin with a family who live very near my cousins. We need to intentionally plan, not just talk about it!